Preferred Platforms for User-GeneratedContent Participation among UniversityUndergraduates in Kwara State, Nigeria

Abstract

The rapid expansion of digital technologies has reshaped communication and content creation, enabling widespread user-generated content (UGC) participation among young people. Anchored in the Uses and Gratification Theory, this study examined the preferred platforms for UGC participation among university undergraduates in Kwara State, Nigeria. A descriptive survey design was adopted, drawing a sample of 660 respondents from four purposively selected universities in Kwara State through a multistage sampling procedure combining stratified, purposive, and simple random sampling. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire and analysed using descriptive statistics (means, standard deviations, and rankings). Findings revealed that Instagram (M = .89) ranked as the most preferred platform for UGC participation, followed by blogs (M = .84), Twitter (M = .82), and websites (M = .81), while Facebook, email, podcasts, Wikipedia, and YouTube recorded comparatively lower preference scores, with YouTube ranking lowest (M = .23). The study concludes that undergraduates in Kwara State gravitate toward visually oriented, interactive platforms that offer immediacy, self-expression, and social feedback, consistent with the assumptions of the Uses and Gratification Theory. It recommends that higher education institutions integrate high-preference platforms into instructional and engagement strategies while promoting digital literacy to encourage more diversified platform use, including currently underutilised platforms such as YouTube and podcasts.